Day Three : 3-days Isle of Skye and Scotland Highlands Tour
Asana Kusnadi
Fort Augustus, pretty little city next to Loch Ness
I thought the hardest part was leaving from London. Turned out, leaving Portree and Isle of Skye was the hardest part of the Great Britain Trip. So pretty that I would gave my two days of exploring Liverpool and Manchester to stay at Isle of Skye. If you’re a landscape lover, spend 5 days to explore Scotland Highland and isle of skye (or even more, or even stay there forever, Don’t leave) 😉
These are the spots (and the route) we visited that day.
Loch Ness / Fort Augustus
Before you get too excited, yes, that was the same lake the nessy monster living in legend. But No, I didn’t see it that day (not that I expected to see it). What I saw though was nessy miniature that looked very cute. It was drizzling and gloomy so all the pictures taken were dark.
Inverlochy Castle
This castle was mostly a ruins, not much could be seen. If I remember it correctly, it was an alternative spots of the original place we should have been visiting. The castle is located on the south bank of the River Lochy, and basically a square curtain wall (source: Wikipedia). I remembered feeling not too excited since it was freezing and drizzling all the way. It was that I realized that weather can really affect your mood in travelling (and the tour itself).
Doune Castle
The eery castle
The sturdy castle structure
The other (alternative) spots to explore was Doune Castle. Our guide indeed so resourceful (Paul was his name if I’m not mistaken). He tried his very best to save us from the weather, and therefore he looked for castles and other so that we could still have many things to see) – instead of open landscapes. Doune castle was bigger than Inverlochy. It looked simple but full of mystery, the one than can easily popped out in horror stories with thunderstorm flashes upon it, and the light was suddenly turned on in one of its room. You know, one of those haunted castle. Luckily our troops didn’t had a chance to get it (it was closed already; really thanked to that). If it wasn’t closed, I would probably opted to stay outside though 😉
What made these 3-days journeys so memorable and different from other tours that I had been, was that Paul, our tour guide, not only warm and friendly. He made jokes, he told stories like no one else would, he was flexible (and strict at the same time), and what I love the most: He played songs that serenade our journey and somewhat suitable with landscapes that we passed. I wasn’t in a tour after all, I was in a video clip of the best song about the most spectacular place on earth, called Scotland.
I had the perks of sitting in the front: I got to know every name of the song Paul played. They were mixed of Scotland traditional songs, pop song, slow rock, rock songs from different ages. The one that caught me immensely was this song played by The Script called “No good in Goodbye” (my heart screamed: IT IS, NO GOOD IN GOODBYE, especially saying Good bye to SCOTLAND). Anyway, the intro of the song matched perfectly with the dramatic hills we passed in Quiraing and Scotland Highlands as Our car went up and down the hills. I downloaded the songs soon as I went back from Scotland. Every now and then hearing the song brings me back to Scotland. (sidenote: actually, I’m writing this paragraph while listening to that song).
